How to Take Care of Your Liver

Its texture is as soft as a rose petal, but liver acts as the chemical factory of our bodies to ensure our good health. It performs a multitude of functions such as producing bile and some other enzymes that helps in digestion of food, aiding in the storage of fats, eliminating poisonous substances from our bodies, and providing us with better immunity.

While we focus on taking care of our heart, we tend to over use our liver and forget about the importance of taking care of it. Before it is too late, let’s take some steps on a daily basis to care for this life sustaining organ.

Avoid food traps:

Your diet plays a key role in keeping your liver healthy.

- Be aware of a species of wild mushroom that can cause liver failure immediately upon consumption. Button mushrooms and most other species are harmless. But avoid mushrooms grown in the wild, because its poison is unknown, especially in rural areas.

- Consume enough protein. A chronic protein can cause hardening and sclerosis of the liver, resulting in permanent damage. If you are vegetarian, make sure to have enough protein intake.

- A vegetable dish is a must with meals to add more fibre to aid digestion, and prevent other complications such as constipation and piles.

Don’t overdose:

Many of us tend to be careless about dosage of food, drink, and medication. Stop abusing our liver, and start a new lifestyle.

- Ensure that our alcohol intake is under control in small doses.

- Never overdose on any medication, especially over-the-counter drugs, and paracetamol in particular. Every medicine you ingest if full of chemicals that are finally processed in the liver. Too many chemical can cause the liver to harden, resulting in permanent damage.

Having more antioxidants:

Foods with antioxidants are good for the liver. Garlic and turmeric will also enhance liver function.

Don’t cause fatty liver:

Beware of food rich in calories, liver will work harder to process all that extra fat. Some amount of fat in the liver is normal, but fat should not make up more than 5-10% of the liver, as it could lead to serious complications. An excessive of iron in the diet, obesity, overload of alcohol consumption all cause a fatty liver. And fatty liver produces a thicker bile solution that will cause stones to form in the gall bladder which require surgical intervention to remove.

Stay away from plastic:

Don’t drink water from a plastic bottle that lies under the sun, avoid heating food placed in a flimsy plastic take-away carton. Consuming cheap melt plastic contaminated in our food or drink can pose a serious hazard to the health of our liver, and even cause liver cancer.

Regular check-ups and vaccinations:

After the age of 35, doctors recommend that we should take a liver function test or an ultrasound every year. This can help ascertain whether the liver is functioning normally.

Vaccinations are available to prevent two of the most dreaded liver diseases–Hepatitis A and B. These viral infections, when unchecked, can lead to severe jaundice and have the potential to destroy the liver.

However, there is still no vaccine to provide protection against Hepatitis C, though research is ongoing.